Uruguay

Uruguay announced Friday that the Botnia-Orion pulp mill, which has been at the heart of an ongoing bitter controversy with Argentina, is set to begin production in mid November conditioned to the finishing of a bicycle lane and an alternative water intake for the plant.

Uruguayan representatives of Britain's Breeders & Packers announced this week in Montevideo plans for an abattoir with an annual capacity of 320.000 head of cattle bred in feed lots involving investments of over 100 million US dollars.

Punta del Este, Uruguay's main international seaside resort on the South Atlantic this coming summer season will be receiving 83 cruise vessels calls with an estimated 120.000 visitors, 60% increase over the 2006/2007 season.

United States Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez announced Wednesday he will travel to Uruguay Oct. 8-9 and Brazil Oct. 9-11 to discuss with senior government officials and the business community ways to promote greater bilateral trade, economic growth and opportunity and to foster greater commercial cooperation between the United States and both Uruguay and Brazil.

Twenty four of the twenty seven crew members of a Spanish trawler that caught fire early Sunday morning in the South Atlantic will be arriving in Montevideo, Uruguay in the coming hours after having been rescued by another Spanish vessel.

During the first seven months of this year China purchased 202.000 tons of wool, equivalent to 1.13 billion US dollars, up 61% over the same period a year ago according to the Uruguayan Wool Secretariat.

Uruguayan and Argentine delegates on Saturday held a new round of talks in New York sponsored by the Spanish Crown in an effort to find a way out to the dispute over the construction of pulp mills along the river Uruguay jointly managed by the neighboring countries.

Uruguay's wholesale prices soared 3.1% in September, pushed by higher agriculture costs admitted the government, bringing overall wholesale inflation for the first nine months of the year to 17.6%, compared to 9.7% in the same period a year ago.